---
The mountains rose out of the jungle like teeth.
For three days the hunters climbed through weather that could not decide between rain and fire. The soil changed first—dark earth giving way to red stone threaded with veins of crystal that glowed faintly beneath the dust. Each night the cliffs flickered with hidden light, as if something vast and buried breathed beneath the peaks.
Eira's instruments crackled uselessly in the heat. "We're walking over a live vein," she said on the third morning. "The Core's energy is bleeding straight up."
Brann wiped sweat from his brow. "Feels like walking on a forge."
Serae shaded her eyes against the glare. "No birds, no beasts. Nothing wants to live here."
Aric moved ahead without comment. The shard in his chest burned like a coal, but it no longer hurt. It pulsed with the same rhythm as the mountain itself. When he closed his eyes, he could feel it—a slow heartbeat, deep below, calling him closer.
---
By dusk they reached a plateau where the jungle ended in a field of black glass. In the center stood the broken remains of an old Concord fortress—massive walls half-swallowed by obsidian, towers melted into crooked spires. Reliefs carved into the remaining stones showed men and beasts standing in the same circle, their forms merging into one. Above them, a symbol identical to Aric's shard glowed faintly in the dying light.
Eira ran her fingers across the carvings. "These rituals… they weren't meant to control monsters. They became them."
Brann frowned. "That supposed to make us feel better?"
Serae's gaze flicked to Aric. "Is that what's happening to you?"
He didn't answer. The longer he stared at the carvings, the more they looked like memory rather than art.
---
They made camp inside the ruin's courtyard. The firelight turned the stones red, and the air shimmered with heat rising from the ground. Far below, something groaned—an echo too deep to be thunder.
Eira glanced up from her notes. "That sound again."
Brann gripped his lance. "If that's the mountain breathing, I'm not waiting to see what happens when it wakes."
Another rumble rolled through the earth. Cracks split across the courtyard floor, bleeding orange light. The temperature surged; ash fell from the sky like snow.
Aric rose, the shard blazing through his armor. "It's not waking," he said quietly. "It's calling."
The ground broke open.
---
They plunged into a storm of light and dust. The floor gave way beneath them, sliding into a cavern so vast it felt like falling through the world. When they landed, they were standing on the edge of a lake of molten crystal. Veins of gold and red ran through the walls like arteries. The heat was unbearable.
Eira's voice shook. "This is it. The Cradle. The Heart Vein passes directly below."
The molten lake churned. Ripples became waves. A shadow moved beneath the surface—massive, fluid, alive. Then the world exploded in light.
A creature rose from the lake, shedding rivers of fire as it climbed. Wings of molten glass unfurled, scattering embers that burned holes in the air. Its body was serpentine, scales shifting from red to white to gold. Six eyes blazed down on them. Its voice came not through sound but through the resonance itself:
Who carries the song of my kin?
Aric felt the words inside his bones. The shard in his chest answered with a pulse of light.
"I do."
Then prove you remember.
The Pyrelith Matron reared, and the chamber became fire.
---
Brann anchored his lance into the obsidian floor. Runes flared along the shaft, forming a barrier that shimmered under the creature's heat. "Serae! Eyes!"
She loosed an arrow that split mid-flight into three, each one striking an eye. The Matron shrieked; molten shards rained from the ceiling. Eira scrambled to activate fallen resonance pillars, their runes dim from centuries of neglect. "I can dampen its energy, but not for long!"
Aric moved. The heat no longer slowed him. Each step left glowing prints on the stone. His blades drew light from the air, runes along their edges igniting.
He met the Matron's first strike head-on. Fire crashed against steel; the impact hurled sparks across the lake. He slid beneath its talons, slashing through molten scales. The creature's roar shook the cavern, scattering ripples of magma.
Brann drove his lance forward, catching a wing joint. "Eira, now!"
She triggered the pillars. Rings of white energy leapt from stone to stone, weaving a net around the Behemoth. The Matron's glow dimmed for a heartbeat—enough.
Aric leapt, both blades spinning. He struck the creature's chest where the scales parted, driving the weapons deep. The shard in his chest flared, connecting with the Matron's core. Pain flooded him—not his, but hers. A thousand years of silence breaking.
Images flashed through his mind: mountains forming, cities burning, Concord hunters kneeling before her light. He saw them merge with her fire, their souls bound to the same song that now throbbed inside him.
You are not my enemy, she said inside his head. You are my echo.
The fire around her faded to gold. The lake stilled. Aric fell to his knees as the shard dimmed. When he looked up, the Matron's massive head hung above him, her molten eyes calm.
Take my breath, she whispered. The world will need it.
Her form dissolved into ash and light, drawn into the shard at his chest. The heat vanished, replaced by a strange, cool stillness. The molten lake solidified into glass that reflected the cavern's fading glow.
---
The others rushed to him. Eira's face was pale, eyes wide. "Aric, your vitals—your pulse is gone."
He looked down at his hands. The veins beneath his skin glowed faintly gold. When he pressed a hand to his chest, the beat he felt was not human. "It's not gone," he said softly. "It's changed."
Serae stared at the cooling lake. "What did she say to you?"
Aric looked toward the sealed fissure where the Matron had disappeared. "That we were never meant to destroy the Beasts. We were meant to remember them."
Brann leaned on his lance, shaking his head. "Remind me to stop asking questions that end in existential dread."
Eira looked at the readings on her broken device. "The entire mountain's resonance just stabilized. It's as if she… folded into you."
Aric nodded. "She did."
They climbed back toward the surface in silence. When they reached the plateau, dawn was breaking. The horizon beyond the mountains burned with new light—not fire, but energy coursing through the clouds in veins of green and gold.
Eira followed his gaze. "Another node."
Aric's eyes glowed faintly in reflection. The voice of the Core whispered again in the back of his mind:
You are not the end of man, but his memory.
He turned to the others. "The Core stopped whispering," he said. "Now it's calling my name."
The wind shifted, warm and heavy with the scent of ash and life. Far beneath them, the world's heart pulsed once—deep and steady—as if answering in kind.
---
End of Chapter 8 – The Cradle of Ash